Partick Thistle boss Gary Caldwell - a former Celtic team-mate of Lennon’s - was among those who claimed that Lennon brings trouble on himself.

“People should know better,” Lennon said. “It’s pretty poor all this - I was goading people, I bring it on myself. There’s an effigy outside Tynecastle saying ‘hang Neil Lennon’. That was before the game. Did I bring that on myself?

“Hanging people is something the Ku Klux Klan did in the 60s to black people so maybe that’s the mentality of people who want to write this stuff.

“This has got to stop. Everyone says I play the victim. I don’t. I had 15 years in England of nothing, so the first day I step into Scotland this sort of stuff began.

“And it’s not because I’m an aggressive character. You all know me. I’m not aggressive at all. I’m competitive, sometimes I cross the line just like any normal manager. So this ‘brings it on himself’, I’m very angry about those comments.”

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